Students are back at the University of Alaska, and my hours for enjoyment reading have been reduced.
So, instead of book reviews this week, I’ll just announce the titles of two new Vonnegut books.
The first, Vonnegut’s War: The Making of Slaughterhouse-Five, is overdue from Amazon, but mail is notoriously slow to Fairbanks.
Here is a link to author Susan Farrell’s interesting commentary about Vonnegut’s 24-year struggle to finish his Dresden novel. Author Susan Farrell is a College of Charleston professor of American Literature.
The second tome is a scholarly, lengthy study titled Kurt Vonnegut in the USSR by Professor Sarah D. Phillips. I’ve read the first one hundred pages and am impressed with her sources and scholarship. The writing may be a bit dense for the casual Vonnegut fan, but thus far, I am impressed with the book’s thoroughness and readability. Phillips is fluent and Russian.
The biggest chuckle I had was a passage in which a visiting Russian poet found out why Vonnegut and his buddy Bernard O’Hare had been expelled from Leningrad after a mere two-day stay. The obtuse Russian authorities wrongly assumed the two war buddies were gay.
This is a huge addition to Vonnegut scholarship. It’s a pity amazing photos on the inside are so washed out. Nonetheless, I love the Jill Krementz photo of Vonnegut cuddling next to his translator Rita Rait.
Why ihe lower caps? Why all that annoying white space? All pix are washed out, even a gem of Kurt and Rait by Jill Krementz.
However, like Dan Wakefield’s biography of Kurt Vonnegut, the cover is very poorly designed. There is a nice photo of Vonnegut with his Russian translator, but it looks washed out. And the designer thought it a good idea to use all lower case letters for the title and name of author. The publisher BLOOMSBURY on the title is all caps. Both the front cover and back cover are tagged in one corner with the SAME three categories: Literatures, Cultures, Translation.” I have no idea why two tags are plural and one is singular.
That said, I’m excited to read this scholarly work. Sarah D. Phillips is an Indiana University professor of Anthropology. Her location enabled her to spend valuable time at the IU Lilly Library archives housing Kurt Vonnegut’s collection of letters and materials.
Bloomsbury also published this second Vonnegut book. I think, like Phillips, Farrell deserved a more carefully designed cover. See if you agree:
Unfortunately, the cover with a silhouette of Billy Pilgrim is hardly the award-winning design this book deserves.
Judging from Farrell’s essay for Bloomsbury, Vonnegut’s War is going to be another important contribution to Vonnegut studies. Hurry up, and deliver the overdue book, Amazon.
Hank Nuwer is an adjunct professor in journalism at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. He is finishing a scholarly biography titled Kurt Vonnegut: The Man in the Hole.